“You Are More Than Just Your Weight”. Why Rebel Wilson Decided to Shed the Pounds, and Why She Won’t Blame Herself for Gaining Them

Rebel Wilson took Hollywood by storm, even though she didn’t conform to outdated standards of appearance. The Australian actress gained the public’s love with her sparkling sense of humour, which she doesn’t shy away from directing at herself. In 2020 Rebel underwent a remarkable transformation, losing dozens of pounds — all in the name of her health. Fortunately, the star’s wit isn’t going anywhere.

Here at CHEERY, we’ve decided to take a look at what Rebel Wilson has done for the body positive community, both before and after her weight loss. On top of being an actress, she has a law degree and a background in martial arts. We truly believe this young woman can teach us all to love life, and ourselves, a little more.

She openly talked about her health problems

When Rebel began to gain weight rapidly in college, she sought help from her doctor. That’s when she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). This hormonal disorder affects fertility and, in some cases, is accompanied by weight gain. After becoming famous, Wilson decided not to hide her medical history from her multi-million dollar audience and openly shared the experience with her Instagram followers.

She has practiced martial arts since childhood

In Pitch Perfect 3, Rebel demonstrated a terrific command of nunchakus, but her skills don’t stop there. The actress’ past is closely linked with karate. Although Wilson didn’t get a black belt, in one of her youth tournaments, the future comedienne won a gold medal.

She launched her own plus-size clothing line

Rebel has been an advocate for body positivity long before her legendary transformation. In 2015, she tried her hand at designing clothes for curvy women. The actress has always felt it was impossible to find cool clothes at an affordable price in the plus-size world and decided to remedy that herself.

Her collaboration with Torrid grew into the launch of a capsule collection. And in 2017, after the release of Pitch Perfect 3, plus-size ladies got the opportunity to look exactly like Wilson’s Fat Amy, as the Rebel Wilson X Angels clothing collection became available for purchase at Nordstrom department stores.

She announced that 2020 was “the year of health” for her

Rebel embarked on her health journey at the age of 40. At the beginning of 2020, she publicly stated that this would be the year of health for her. In that time, the actress has achieved amazing results, slowly but surely losing 80lb.

She put her reproductive health at the forefront

Rebel started paying attention to her health for the sake of her future children. For now, the actress is babysitting her little niece, but the star wants to have a baby of her own some day. So, at a clinic appointment, Wilson’s GP told her that with better health, she would have a better chance, as her eggs would be of better quality. At first, the doctor’s words offended Rebel, as she considered herself to be quite healthy. But, the comedienne soon realised the benefits, and took the doctor’s advice.

She lost weight despite the pleadings of management

Sadly, not everyone around Rebel was supportive of her new objective. She revealed that her managers questioned the idea of getting healthy and losing weight. The reason being that Wilson had made a name for herself as a funny, chubby girl, so management was convinced that losing weight would be a bad career move.

Fortunately, these fears were unfounded. Rebel herself says that her latest film, Senior Year, in which she starred since her transformation, has become the funniest of her career so far. And the high ratings confirm this.

She didn’t torture herself with strict diets

There were many rumours surrounding Rebel’s transformation. It was speculated, that the actress was following the Mayr method, developed 100 years ago, and taking special diet pills. Wilson has shed some light on the truth and revealed on Instagram-Stories that she has never followed the Mayr method and does not endorse any “magic weight loss pills”. It seems that it was no miracle that helped the actress lose weight, but rather, sports and good old-fashioned healthy eating habits.

She put importance on the balance between health and pleasure

Rebel analysed her diet and found that before her “health year” she could eat 3000 calories a day, most of which came from carbohydrates. With this diet, the actress was hungry all the time.

Now, Wilson sticks to a high-protein diet that she is comfortable with. Of course, that doesn’t mean she’s cutting out her favourite foods: “I’m just trying to go for overall healthy balance. We’ll be like, ’Should we get an In-N-Out burger?’ And I’m like, ’Nothing is forbidden.’ I can go there, I just might eat half of what I used to eat before.”

She decided not to blame herself for the weight she had gained

We fell in love with Rebel all over again when she posted on her Instagram about the weight she gained during her holiday: “I just noticed I put on 3 kg’s on my holiday. But you know what? I can get up tomorrow and go to the gym, and hydrate and eat healthy and love myself. It doesn’t help to be hard on yourself but I know what it’s like to feel guilty and not great after eating too much. But if you’re like me just know YOU are more than just your weight.” And we couldn’t agree more.

She raised the topic of eating disorders

Rebel confesses that during her “year of health” she had to give up old habits in favour of healthy new ones. During the review of her former lifestyle, the actress realised that she had been overeating and binge eating due to a lack of self-love. Wilson insists that outward changes are directly linked to a constant practice of self-love and a sense of self-worth.

She experienced, first-hand, the difference in how people treat you depending on your size

After dropping a few sizes, the queen of body positivity experienced how differently people treat you depending on your size. “What’s been really interesting to me is how other people treat you. Sometimes being bigger, people didn’t necessarily look twice at you. And now that I’m in a good shape, like, people offer to carry my groceries to the car and hold doors open for you”.

She treats herself with more than just food

Rebel has changed a lot both inside and out — it’s just too tempting not to call her Fit Amy, you’ll have to excuse the pun. She no longer tries to fill her emotional void with sweets, but makes sure to treat herself — sometimes with her favourite dessert, and sometimes, with a relaxing bubble bath.

She remembers the important things in life

Now Rebel continues to eat well and exercise, but losing weight is no longer on her list of priorities. Wilson recently shared the happy news that she has a new girlfriend — Ramona Agruma.

The couple visited a European resort, where they enjoyed relaxing by the sea. Rebel seems to be fully happy with her life and is doing well on all fronts — in her personal life, as well as her career, and her relationship with herself.

How did you come to love and accept yourself? And what do you usually like to treat yourself with?